The New England Patriots new head coach Mike Vrabel wants to run the ball, perhaps more than either of his two predecessors, Jerod Mayo and. of course, Bill Belichick. To that end, the Patriots used their second-round pick, No. 38 overall, on a running back â TreVeyon Henderson, just coming off a national championship with Ohio State.
The pick of Henderson was the highest the Patriots have used to select a running back since 2018, when Belichick took Georgia’s Sony Michel at the bottom of the first round with the 31st overall pick, which should give some indication of how important Vrabel believes the run game will be in the new-look, 2025 Patriots offensive system.
And yet, with the calendar now turned to June, two of three weeks worth of voluntary OTA practices complete, and mandatory minicamp just eight days away, Henderson and the Patriots have not yet agreed on final contract terms. The 2024 Big 10 yards-per-carry leader (7.1) remains unsigned.
Unsigned Second Rounders a League-Wide Trend
The Patriots had nailed down signatures from eight of their 11 draft picks by May 9, along with all 16 of their rookie free agents. But more than three weeks later the three who have not signed remain without contracts.
They are Henderson, first-round pick Will Campbell, a former LSU offensive lineman, and fourth round selection Craig Woodson, a cornerback from Cal.
On Sunday, longtime Patriots insider reporter Mike Reiss of ESPN.com revealed that the holdup with Henderson is actually part of an NFL-wide trend with second-round picks â a trend that started when the Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans, who held the first two picks in the second round, respectively, signed their picks to fully guaranteed contracts.
Those picks were, for the Browns, UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger, and for Houston Iowa State wide receiver Jayden Higgins.
The usual NFL practice has been to reserve fully guaranteed deals exclusively for first round picks. The Browns and Texans broke that unwritten rule, throwing the rest of the second round into a kind of chaos.
“Henderson, the No. 38 overall selection, is among 30 second-round picks who have yet to sign,” Reiss reported. “The top two picks in the second round received fully guaranteed deals, a rarity, which has slowed things down as teams and agents determine at what spot the full guarantees will end.”
Patriots Fans Have No Need to Worry, Probably
As of Sunday, those other 30 players chosen in the second round remain unsigned.
“Thatâs likely because other teams donât want to follow the Brownsâ and Texansâ lead and give fully guaranteed contracts to second-round picks,” wrote Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. “And agents are asking those teams, if other second-round picks are getting fully guaranteed contracts, why should my player take anything less?”
Henderson did not participate in the first Patriots OTA practice that was open to the media. But apparently his absence was unrelated to his contract situation, because for the second week of OTAs, not only was the second-round pick present, he worked out with the starters group, again, indicative of the important role Vrabel envisions for Henderson.
So, should Patriots fans worry that Henderson, and for that matter Campbell and Woodson, have not signed contracts with mandatory minicamp barely a week away? According to Jordy McElroy of USA Today Patriotswire, not really.
“There’s no need to hit the panic button, Patriots fans. It’s not unusual for some contracts to take longer,” McElroy wrote. “The team and player agents are hard at work behind the scenes hammering out an agreement in the contract language to finalize the deals.”
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